


it’s all coming back to you

by allthestairs



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Caduceus Clay Needs a Hug, Gen, Light Angst, Pranks, Scene Rewrite, Sibling Bonding, Sibling Rivalry, calliope clay is a badass, i care them-, literally just the bone flute scene from c2x96, literally like a sentence of angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-28
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-19 04:40:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29745123
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allthestairs/pseuds/allthestairs
Summary: calliope and caduceus are Siblings and it Shows(lowercase intended!!)
Relationships: Caduceus Clay & Calliope Clay, Caduceus Clay & Clay Family, Caduceus Clay & The Mighty Nein, the mighty nein (mentioned) - Relationship
Kudos: 35





	it’s all coming back to you

**Author's Note:**

> this is just a scene rewrite of the bone flute prank from c2x96 because clay family dynamic my beloved,,,

calliope gazed into the rippling water of the pool, moving her foot around ever so slightly when the water began to still again. she knew she should probably have gone to bed much earlier, she was sure everyone else had. she had seen those new friends of her brother’s turn in earlier that night. 

calliope couldn’t help but let her mind wander to caduceus’s friends. they were a colorful group, a type calliope would never in a million years expect caduceus, of all people, to join. the tiefling interested her the most. the blue tiefling was almost child-like in her ways, seeming overly-optimistic, but maybe that was just her high pitched and perpetually excited voice. 

there was also the wizard, one of the only two humans of the group. he seemed troubled, but not as if something had happened recently. deeply troubled, something that had etched itself into his mind like the winds and rain ate at rock over years and years. calliope decided not to let herself dwell too much on that.

calliope’s mind wandered to her brother. 

caduceus. caduceus himself was impossible to explain. he always seemed the calmest of the four siblings. calliope herself was always itching for action, something to do. caduceus was her younger brother, but he always ended up being the voice of reason when something pissed her off. clarabelle was... well, clarabelle was clarabelle. calling her ‘weird’ would be flat-out hypocritical, looking at the rest of their family. and colton, though he was the eldest of the clay siblings, had the biggest hero complex calliope had ever seen. always wanting to help, to be the hero, to get the glory. and yet, despite it all, even caduceus had given into their family’s history of chaos and had joined the ragtag group of adventurers the half-orc had referred to as ‘the mighty nein’. 

she knew what caduceus was doing was far more dangerous than anything the rest of the clay family had been doing, so she worried. what if something happened to her brother? could she trust these people to bring him home? what if he didn’t make it? 

calliope sighed, knowing that nothing she could say would change her brother’s mind. besides, if this was what the wildmother had planned for caduceus, then who was calliope to argue? she closed her eyes, muttering a quick prayer to the wildmother, praying for her family, her brother, her brothers’ friends, and—

an ear-splitting, piercing wail sounded suddenly from behind her. calliope startled with a yelp before falling face-first into the pool, faintly hearing an infuriatingly familiar laugh from above the water. 

calliope broke the surface, sputtering and pushing hair out of her face before catching sight of none other than her stupid, little shit of a younger brother nearly doubled over in laughter.

“ _CADUCEUS!”_

at her yell, caduceus began bolting for the door, stumbling slightly and allowing calliope to scramble out of the pool and tackle her younger brother to the ground, pinning him with one foot while panting heavily. caduceus, still laughing, managed to speak between fits of laughter.

“i have been carrying that thing for  _so long!_ ”

calliope rolled her eyes. “i was gonna thank you!  _was!_ ”

more laughter, and a quiet “you would have enjoyed that” from caduceus had calliope pinning him down even further.

“it’s comin’ back to you, it’s all comin’ back to you,” she said slowly, a mock threat.

“yeah, we’ll see,” caduceus said with a shit-eating grin that made calliope want to throw her brother into the pool herself. calliope lifted her foot off of her brother, caduceus sitting up and holding up the flute that he had supposedly scared calliope shitless with. calliope grabbed it, turning it over in her hands and narrowing her eyes. it looked like it was made of bone. 

“where the hell did you get this?” calliope asked, her tail twitching.

“oh, yknow, around,” caduceus said with another one of those shit-eating grins which, to be honest, calliope was not used to from caduceus in the slightest. she paused for a moment before shoving the instrument into her back pocket.

“well, it’s mine now. until you  _ earn _ it back,” calliope said matter-of-factly, waiting for her brother to stand up completely.

“be a shame if something happens to colton tomorrow,” caduceus said, absentmindedly twirling the crystal calliope had been holding in his hand. “just sayin’,” he said, giving his sister a mischievous grin. calliope grappled with the extremely entertaining thought of pranking the pair’s usually stoic older brother. she narrowed her eyes and glared at her younger brother, before quickly sweeping caduceus’s legs out from under him, watching in satisfaction as caduceus hit the ground with a thud and a groan. she gave him a grin. caduceus laughed once more.

“oh man, i’ve missed you,” caduceus said with a genuine smile. calliope rolled her eyes good-naturedly and reached out a hand to help him up. 

“i missed you, too,” she said with a sigh, caduceus pulling her into a side-hug that she leaned into despite her attitude. she truly had missed her younger brother’s company.

the two were silent for a moment before calliope spoke up. 

“you’re such... you’re such a  _you_ ,”  calliope said, causing caduceus to chuckle slightly.

“i think i’ve gotten weirder,” 

“that’s not even  _ possible _ ,”

“i  _ know _ , right?!”

calliope shook her head. “what have your friends done to you?” she joked.

“they are very strange, especially the blue one,” caduceus said, a small grin forming on his face at the mention of his companions. calliope could tell he cared deeply for them. 

“well, maybe some family time will do ya good,” calliope said with a smile.

caduceus frowned at that. “oh. uh, actually.... you were right about a lot of things,” he said, pausing.

calliope laughed. “yeah, i know that,” she said, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

“i’ve been out there, i’ve—i’ve seen a lot. i’ve seen... a  _lot_ ,”  caduceus said, emphasizing the last word in a way that made calliope look up, an expression of concern on her face. had something happened that caduceus wasn’t telling her?

“i don’t entirely know who i am anymore. leaving home changes you,” caduceus said. 

calliope nodded in understanding. “yeah, i know,” she said. the first time she had left home with her parents and siblings, leaving caduceus behind, she had been in awe of everything around her, and so had her parents. it changed her, changed her into the “badass”, as the other human in caduceus’s group had described her, that she was today. “i’m surprised it took you long enough to step out for a bit,” she said. 

“i wasn’t gonna be the one. i was supposed to stay so that the rest of you could leave,” caduceus said. he seemed slightly troubled.

“well, im glad that you overcame your need to stay and got a little stir-crazy,” calliope said with a reassuring grin.

“i may not be done,” caduceus said. “and i don’t know what to tell mom and dad yet.”

calliope paused. she didn’t have an answer for that, no matter how much she wanted to help. instead, she glanced at caduceus’s hand, where he was fiddling with the crystal. 

“did you say you found more of those?” she asked. caduceus nodded, pulling three more of the crystals from his pack. calliope took them before stepping back up to the pool, her brother following. 

calliope tossed the crystals into the pool, watching as the tiny points on the sides of the beautiful stones began growing, branching out like spiderwebs across the clear surface of the pool. some interconnected, forming beautiful patterns in the water, while others simply remained as mini, magical trees floating in the water. 

“i think it’s time to take them home,” caduceus said with a smile.

“you think so?” calliope asked. “are you going home?”

caduceus paused, then shook his head. “i owe such a debt,” he said quietly. calliope understood — she could only imagine what her brother and his friends had been through. “are you?”

“if you’re not,” she said. “someone’s gotta take these home and plant them, and i gotta protect the rest of these knuckleheads,” she said jokingly, jerking a thumb over her shoulder to where the rest of their family was sleeping. “look, how about you just... keep them on you. we’ll have a space to plant them ready for you when you come home, alright?” she said. 

caduceus nodded. “i think i’d like that,” he said.

the two sat in silence for a bit longer, before calliope eventually stood up with a sigh, a slight grin on her face.

“well, someone’s gotta pick em all up,” she said, shoving her brother into the pool, chuckling as her brother broke the surface, his usually faded pink hair now hot pink as it hung dripping over one eye. “well? pick em up!” she called. caduceus picked each of the small crystals up, not taking his eyes off of calliope, before placing them on the edge of the pool. calliope nearly laughed as her hand slipped from her brother’s grip when he tried to pull her into the pool as well. she slowly pushed her brother back into the water with her boot before standing up. “night, ‘duceus!” she called before heading out of the temple, a sly grin on her face.

the clay family was together again, even if only for a few days. calliope chuckled at the thought. it had been ten years since they had all seen caduceus, and yet here they were, pranking each other and play-fighting as if they’d never left each other’s sides. it was heartwarming in a way. a part of calliope had been afraid caduceus had forgotten them. now she realized that was impossible. caduceus was back, caduceus was safe, and caduceus still loved them, and that was all that mattered.

**Author's Note:**

> hi!! hope you enjoyed!! i wrote this in like. 2 days after seein this scene bc i care they,,,
> 
> anyway comments are greatly appreciated!! <33


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